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Whether David Attias, the chronically mentally ill UCSB student who — as the self-proclaimed “Angel of Death” — killed four people after plowing his car into an Isla Vista crowd 11 years ago, is fit to be released from Patton State psychiatric hospital will be the subject of a four-day hearing this May. Attias was found not guilty by reason of insanity (NGI) in 2002 and is one of the few people, if not the only person, charged with homicide in Santa Barbara history to receive that verdict. The May hearing promises to be the first in memory to determine if someone found NGI in Santa Barbara should be released from Patton and placed into continuing treatment in a facility contracted by the California Department of Mental Health’s Forensic Conditional Release Program (CONREP).

Attias has been evaluated every six months since he was sent to Patton, and Patton and CONREP administrators agree he’s sufficiently stabilized to be released. Prosecuting attorney Paula Waldman said she’s requesting a hearing just to make sure. “We’re just doing our due diligence,” she said. Waldman explained that under state law the legal burden of proof will be on Attias and his attorney — Public Defender Deedrea Egar — to prove he does not pose “a danger to others based on his mental defect.” Egar and Attias will have to show Judge Thomas Adams, who presided over the trial 10 years ago, that Attias poses no such danger to the public. Waldman said she intends to send a psychiatric expert to Patton to interview Attias in the meantime.

The evaluations upon which Patton is basing its recommendation are confidential for the time being but will become public during the course of the trial. After Judge Adams scheduled the hearing from May 8-12, Egar met briefly with reporters to express grave concern how state and county cuts to mental-health services have put the public at greater risk by reducing — and eliminating — care that could prevent those with mental illness from reaching the breaking point. If her petition proves successful, Egar stressed, Attias will not simply be released but will be consigned to treatment with 24-hour supervision.

This guy should stay, um, how do you say, uh, what's the term, err, oh yeah, LOCKED UP!He screwed up my community by wrecklessly killing 4 innocent people & maiming another. No amount of treatment for this guy will convince me that he should get to go loose.Does ANYBODY really believe the guy won't go off his meds w/ reduced supervision?Screw this "not guilty by reason of insanity" crap, just another get out of jail free card, especially for rich kids.He wasn't so "insane" as to not know how to operate a motor vehicle & aim it @ a group of innocent people was he? NOPE!This guy needs to stay where he is, Patton State hospital, keep him on his meds, he gets visits by mommy & daddy, you know, removed from society.The ONLY thing the "insanity" plea should NOT get you is the death penalty, but life locked up, got ZERO issue w/ that & that's where this guy needs to stay.The guy WILL pose a danger, this guy WILL be a threat to society, this guy WILL always remain what he is: A MURDERER! Lock him away, for good :) henry

gotta agree with all of you folks, he needs to remain in some sort of close custody... the aspect of his "angel of death" thing and the ubiquitous video game culture Mr. Attias and others inhabit [or, inhabited] is pretty frightening. Anyone with some mental issues in the first place could be playing Halo or Manhunt IV (or, whatever, war game) and somehow morph into reality on some street in SB or IV....fall off his meds because supervision at the Towers was lax...and just go off. This issue is much deeper than the psyche of this poor guy, who shouldn't be allowed out....

Who deemed him the "angel of death" all those years ago & who made everyone judge, jury & executioner????? If he has been deemed healthy enough to be removed from Patton & served his time who is anyone if NOT someone who has evaluated him on a daily basis to judge????? Did none of you carefully read the whole article & see he will be placed into "continuing treatment in a facility contracted by the California Department of Mental Health’s Forensic Conditional Release Program (CONREP)". Duh that means that he will be still under care & be taking his meds! Get a grip!!!!! I was in prison, served my time & still have to deal with people like you, I sure didn't kill anyone, but you would think I did, when do people actually get a chance to prove themselves????? God I hope none of you or your loved ones make a mistake or have mental issues!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Having worked as a clinical psychologist with patients released from state hospitals through CONREP I sadly know first hand how very easy it is very easy for individuals such as David Attias to simply stop taking the medications after finishing certain levels of probation and repeat the same, or similar crime that got them arrested the first time.

If you doubt what I say please do the research, and see how easy it will be for this young man to complete his probation, be released from CONREP, end all medication he is currently forced to take while locked up, and then Kill Again.

The wealthy parents of this young have, and continue to work the judicial system.

Judge Thomas Adams, I implore you to keep the public safe from David Attias.

David Attias belongs in a locked facility where he can receive the proper supervision and treatment for the chronic, life long mental illness he suffers from.

Bashore, when Attias got finished running down and killing four innocent people, he got out of his car, squared off against the bystanders, and screamed that he was the "Angel of Death." It's on video - a crew filming for the then-popular "IVTV" show [public access TV] happened to be in the area and filmed the chaotic aftermath.

That's where the term "Angel of Death" came from - the defendant himself.

Like the Yeti said, Attias did himself after MURDERING 4 people & MAIMING another, it IS on video.

"who made everyone judge, jury & executioner?????"

A jury is composed of peers, right? Guess what we are? Peers. As for the executioner, nope, the state doesn't grant us that power & in my humble opinion, as a peer, all I can say is BUMMER!He served as judge, jury & executioner/maimer against INNOCENT people, why can't we be such for somebody who is GUILTY as sin?

"If he has been deemed healthy enough to be removed from Patton & served his time who is anyone if NOT someone who has evaluated him on a daily basis to judge?????"

Ever hear of the terms "relapse" or "repeat offender" or "habitual offender" in your lifetime? We have & seen the harm they do.

"Did none of you carefully read the whole article & see he will be placed into "continuing treatment in a facility contracted by the California Department of Mental Health’s Forensic Conditional Release Program (CONREP)"."

As a matter of fact, yes we did. Why do you think we're alarmed?

"Duh that means that he will be still under care & be taking his meds!"

Duh, that means there will definitely be lapses in supervision & he will for some reason stop taking meds & go "mad pride" on society again.

"I was in prison, served my time & still have to deal with people like you, I sure didn't kill anyone, but you would think I did, when do people actually get a chance to prove themselves?????"

The DIFFERENCE between you & Attias is your crime was probably 1 of greed, envy, lust, hate, whatever or even maybe an accident & as you stated, you didn't kill anyone.Attias DID kill & maim people & it was the little voices that will always be coming back to say hello every now & then that told him he was the angel of death.I'll bet you bucks to doughnuts he still hears the voices & believes he IS the angel of death.

"God I hope none of you or your loved ones make a mistake or have mental issues!"

We hope that too, but I'll be the 1st to tell you if a loved 1 commited the crime of murder outside of self defense, military service or law enforcement service, I'd be the 1st to condemn that loved 1.If they tried to plead nutty to get off, I'd be the 1st to call them on it. Just the way it is.

If someone is insane it's all the more reason to keep them out of society. While punishment is pointless, and a mental institution would be a more appropriate place than prison, Attias should not be let back into the general public.

It amazes me that after all these years the legal loopholes that allow these crazies back into society haven't been closed.

If he is now deemed "Sane enough" then he should be moved to a Prison Facility to serve out the rest of his days, NOT be released. If a "Sane" person murdered four people and severely injured a fifth there is no way they would be released after only serving 11 years. If Attias is sane enough he should have to serve the remainder of what a sane person would have been sentenced to in Prison.

Something I find missing from articles such as this one, is whether Attias has shown any remorse for his actions. Even if he was "insane" at the time, his "sane" response should include remorse--and possibly some shame, just for good measure.

Aside, I hope that anyone who thinks Attias should be locked away forever, doesn't mind paying the taxes that would make such a thing possible. . . .

EqqusP: "I hope that anyone who thinks Attias should be locked away forever, doesn't mind paying the taxes that would make such a thing possible."

The other option is execution & seeing as most people in CA are anti execution, what option do you think that leaves?Paying the taxes to permanently incarcerate or erradicate KNOWN WANTON (not accidental) killers is money well spent :) henry

Gotta stand with Hank & B. Clausen on this one. See? We DO sometimes agree. A post-Xmas-spring miracle!

Keep this maniac with the bad bad chemicals away from thoseof us who daily labor to remain within sight of the proper & civilized boundaries of sanity in spite of our own near-lethal levels of inanity.

Come on, these people in our corrections are "pros", they know what they are doing, and he is sane. By the way so are The Night Stalker, Charles Manson, and the last Speed Freak Killer. I am sure they will promise to take their meds and refrain from killing innocent people too if they let them out. Double pinkie promise.

If mental masturbation is not your thing, please focus on the rules. In an NGI verdict, the rules are nowhere near symmetrical, nor, to many, seemingly logical. If you don't like the rules take it up with your state legislators.

1. To be found NGI, the fact finder (the convict has the right to a jury to find the facts) must find unanimously that the evidence has established by a preponderance of the evidence that at the time of the act the convicted criminal was "McNaughten insane" - either he/she did not understand the nature of his/her act, or couldn't distinguish between right and wrong at the time of the crime he/she was convicted of committing.

2. When a convict is found to have been NGI, he/she must be incarcerated indefinitely until he/she proves to a judicial fact-finder (again, the right to a jury obtains) that he/she no longer represents a danger of committing violent acts upon others.

Note that to "get in" to the NGI system the test is one of mental ability; to "get out", the test is one of estimated dangerousness.

Attias is "in"; he wants to get "out". Reasoned discussion must necessarily focus on the rules, procedures, institutions and personalities that are germane to a determination by a jury as to what it means, and whether, David Attias, is likely to act violently so that he injures others in the future.

The recrimination rag is best thought of as the kleenex used to clean up the product of mental masturbation that does not focus on the "job at hand."

Again, if any of all y'all want to flog other dragons, take it up with your legislators.

M Ganschow wrote, "If mental masturbation is not your thing, please focus on the rules. In an NGI verdict" ... but we humble beings are expressing our own personal opinions about whether we think he should/should not, via your "rules", be released into the general population. Flog some more dragons yourself, Mike.

I think what has our community so riled up about this (and rightly so, IMHO), is the feeling of blantant misuse of the NGI system for Attias to escape accountability for a horrific deed.

I personally believe in NGI if used properly. A developmentally-delayed 40 year-old with the effective mind of a 7 year old does not have the adult-level reasoning ability that adult criminal law is based on, thus he would not be able to stand trial as such. In this case, NGI is a valuable protection.

Attias, on the other hand, was a functional (ie non-homicidal) member of society until he, while under the effects of his medications, decided to not take them. The crime initiated at that point, when he was sane, not when he attacked his victims. It's no different than if I chose to get hammered at a bar, then drive my car into a crowd of people. I can't get off by saying "it's not my fault, I was drunk and therefore couldn't control the car!" Adults must take accountability for their actions, which also includes the repercusions of those choices.